A book about mindfulness and not depression 2010-07-05

Reviewer: Mohamed Youssef Sharnoubi

If this book was about mindfulness practice, may be I would have given it four or five. But since it's supposed to be a book about depression, I can't be very enthusiastic.

The book explains very well and in great detail the different mindfulness practices much better than some of the pure mindfulness books I must say.
As for depression, I think the book is very superficial and too general to be of real help. I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, however from personal experience (including a lot of meditation and mindfulness) this approach is not always effective against depression. But wait a minute, I caught myself committing the author's sin; generalization!
Truth is depression is not a single malady with similar causes and treatments. We can't just lump them all up in one big bag and say: "hey, I've got the perfect remedy for you. Just practice some mindfulness and everything will be ok!"
I'm sorry to say, such approach is superficial and sometimes inaccurate.

In addition, I don't agree with the doing/being mode. True, most of us have discrepancy in the being mode of being that needs some practice to solve. However, this doesn't mean it's the magical answer to all our problems. Sometimes (in fact a lot), the treatment of depression requires a heavy dose of the doing mode. I believe this favoring of the being mode is mainly due to the author's simplistic, reductionist mentality which always tries to minimize the number of causes of a given problem.
However, real life is much different and not that simple.

Book purchase 2010-06-16

Reviewer: Jeffrey W. Duncan

The book arrived in the condition described by vendor. I order three books at the same time. This delivery took twice as long, as the other two books purchased.

Helpful book 2010-06-08

Reviewer: Mary Bryan

Very helpful book for depression and anxiety. A whole new way of looking at thoughts and coming to terms with them.

Warning - this book may endanger your mental health 2010-05-29

Reviewer: R. Anderson

The book itself is quite informative, being a useful guide to deperssion, its symptoms and causes, etc, but the accompanying CD was -in my experience- very dangerous and has led to chronic mental ill-health which will now take much more than standard treatments to resolve.

I was suffering depression and my psychiatrist recommended mindfulness techniques to me, but I hadn't at that time disclosed that I had been a victim of child sexual abuse. Sitting down with the CD, I was lulled into a meditative state, and the process of mindfulness process echoed my experience of the first instance of assault. In particulary, the beginning stages of a mindfulness meditation will chime with a great many abuse sufferers. Having previously 'psychologically resolved' my experience (in that it was understood as distant memory), the meditative state I was in whilst re-experiencing the abuse as an adult has triggered flashbacks which I'd never suffered from before and are terrifying to have commence now.

Although the book was written by psychiatrists/psychologists, I understand Kabat-Zinn is actually a microbiologist #or some such non-behavioural science) by background, with his doctor status coming from an honorary degree from his own institute.

If you are, or may have suffered, physical abuse, you should be very careful using the CD accompanying the book.

MOST HELPFUL 2010-05-24

Reviewer: FRAMERCPF

MY HUSBAND SUFFERS FROM CLINICAL DEPRESSION LABELED AS MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER AND HIS COUNSELOR SUGGESED HE INVENST IN SOME SORT OF AUDIO HELP SINCE HE HAS TROUBLE CONCENTRATING ON READING MATERIAL. THESE CD'S HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY HELPFUL FOR HIM TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HIS DEPRESSION AND THE MAN SPEAKING ON THESE CD'S IS VERY RELAXING. WE RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE NEEDING HELP FOR DEPRESSION IN AN AUDIO FORMAT.